My PC keeps switching off and rebooting

Hi,

For the past three evenings, I've booted up my PC when I've got in and literally a couple of minutes in to using it, will switch off and reboot. On restarting the keyboard wont work until Windows has started. I'm thinking a major reinstall of everything, though I'm also thinking it could be the start of something thats going to get worse. Once rebooted, it doesnt do it again.

Sounds more like power or motherboard issues.. A reinstall won't fix that, but you could try..

In control panel open the EVENT VIEWER and look for any red items that were logged around the time of the bad reboot. Any information there might help figure it out.

If you use an NVIDIA video card go to their site and download the latest drivers from there (never from widndows update). I have heard of bad drivers for NVidia doing this very thing before.

After that its hard to tell what it could be. Periodically formatting a PC and starting it for scratch is good anyway. I know people who do it every three months.

Also check to be sure the fan on the CPU is running.

My best guess = the Ass-Rock motherboard that you are probably using. Might be time for a new PC.

Hmmm...are you using a USB keyboard? You may have USB legacy support turned off in your BIOS settings in which case the keyboard will not respond until windows has loaded. The switching off could be a anothing from a driver/resources conflict to a virus. Try to use a PS/2 keyboard first. If the problem persists then you may have a motherboard problem.

That was exactly the reason why my PC behaved in a similar way a few years back!

It most definitely is a power supply or fan problem. If both are running fine, a re-install could help. I would clean everything and do a re-install before I would take it to a computer doctor. I have an 11 year old PC still running fine after an "expert" told me that my mother board was fucked. The only thing fucked was Win'98! It runs three times as fast on Linux and has now become my son's PC for computer games we get in cereal boxes.

it sounds like a virus! I had one that did the same thing to my PC. I had to do a boot sector search to fing the bugger and clean the system.

People.. A virus will not affect the power status of a PC, and deff. not before the OS has even started.
The problem is deff. a power issue. The keyboard (USB) sometimes working during BIOS post/sometimes not
also points to this as a USB Keyboard is a BUS powered device.

@3L Check all your fans are running (And they are clean) and make sure the coolers are firmly attached. Next step is to get a new power
supply, perhaps a higher wattage then what you have now. There not that expensive.

Sounds like the CPU is overheating, common problem, check both the fan on the main power supply at the back of the unit, and also the fan on the CPU for dirt/oose/crap , give them a wee blast with the hoover (whilst PC is switched off of course!) and all will be well.

I agree with DJ Grazy as this happened to me too, though in my case, the fan was whirring really loudly, so that was a bit of a clue. BD helped me replace the fan in it and it worked fine after.

To be certain it is not a virus issue, do a system restore to a date before your problems started. If you still have problems it is a hardware issue.

Happens to my PC too, especially when I am in Toytown. Don't know why. We have all the latest hardware and software installed and power supply is good, antivirus is working wonders. Something to do with TT, maybe ?

yes, I think that it could be any of the suggested problems, CPU overheating, Power supply, Mother board, or in the worse case a virus (Sasser for example) . What Antivirus program are you using, and do you have system backup software?